China and the West

Film : Gu xing xue lei = 孤星血泪 [An orphan's tragedy] unter der Regie von Zhu Ji. Adaptation von Great expectations von Charles Dickens durch die Zhonglian Film Company in Hong Kong.
Guo Ting : This adaptation clearly re-adjusts the power balance between men and women according to the social norms and cultural patterns of traditional Chinese society. Not only is the number of female roles reduced but their significance in terms of the
development of the story is diluted. Miss Havisham’s resentment of men and her education of Estella in how to manipulate them are completely erased. Instead, female virtue, obedience and devotion to family are emphasized and promoted. Clearly, this adaptation
set out to reshape the power relationship between genders in order to cater to the cultural expectations of the target audience – traditional, male-dominated Chinese society. In addition to re-modelling the female roles, the film also attempted to incorporate
contemporary ideology, without changing the main plot. One important strategy adopted by the producer was the reinterpretation of the idea of 'great expectations'.